EMH evening Fastpass

[vincent]

It sounds like the EMH evening hours can be worse than during the day. The first time I did them was in 1997 at MK in July. We literally walke on to all of the rides. How is it that it is so crowded now? Also, I really want to see Soarin' and Mission to Mars because we have never done those and they sound fun. It seems like I saw somewhere on the boards that they have fastpass during the eveing. It makes sense but do they? Also, is there a strategy to do Epcot for the EMH evening hour? We leave in ten days!

 

[snowy76]

Before this year, MK was open at night for an additional admission price and it was called E-Ride night. Back then they limited tickets -- I think it was about 5,000. The new EMH allow anyone staying on property to be in the park for the designated night for no extra cost. So more people are taking advantage of it; hence the crowds, and the tendency for many of us here to avoid it!

I would still think morning EMH is a benefit though, since you are having the advantage of being among the first in the park.

 

[vincent]

Is there a strategy for evening EMH? My son and I will be arriving on a Wednesday and would like to do MK. We would arrive at the park around 7:30 p.m. We want to see the fireworks and do all of the major rides as well as do our favorites multiple times (Buzz lightyear, fantasmic, pirates of the Carribean.

 

[SuzEm]

THe only strategy would be waiting for the last hour for the crowds to thin out some. My daughter and I did MK EMH this past Wednesday night. Fast pass was not available and the lines were long. We didn't get there until around 9 and planned to stay until 2 am. We were able to ride without much wait during the parade and fireworks, then it got crazy for about an hour and a half. By 12:30/1am the crowds began to thin and we were able to do some more rides. We just hit the ones where there were no lines and waited for the big ones until after 1 a.m. We had already done alot of the rides earlier in the week, so that night was more of a fun time to experience the park at night. I wouldn't do EMH with it in mind that you can avoid the crowds. We got a lot more done with less lines on the previous Sunday.

 

[snowy76]

I agree with the last post. Especially if there are TWO showings of Spectromagic, hit as many of the big rides as possible when most other people are watching the parade. Then you can do some of the less popular rides during the first part of EMH till it dies down a bit.

I am still mourning the loss of E-Ride Nights. I would rather pay my extra $13 and know I am one of only a few people in the park rather than be part of the EMH free-for-all. So this year I have decided I must drop the commando mode during EMH. Try to do it all during EMH and you'll just end up cranky! I'm trying to remember that part of the fun of being in the park at night is just that -- the rest of the world has shut down and you're still in the middle of the magic!

As for your original post re: Epcot EMH -- haven't done it yet, haven't heard too much positive feedback about it since I understand the Fastpasses go VERY quickly. We will do morning EMH for Epcot this time, since we have done it before with success.

 

[RevBob]

A big thumbs up for MORNING EMH at EPCOT. We did it two weeks ago and were one of the first onto SOARIN, and then headed right over to Mission Space and then Test Track. Were able to do all three of these before the regular opening, plus get FP to do Soarin again. We chose not to do Evening EMH at Epcot since there is not that many things available and it was obvious that the crowd watching Illuminations would mob those big three rides once it was over.

 

[Disneyglobegirl]

I would definately do the morning EMH over the eveing hours - we got so much more done in the mornings - we attempted evening EMH at MK and it was packed!

 

[vincent]

Well, thanks. Hopefully they will go back to E-ride nights or something better than what they are offering now. Anyway, we are not going to get to the hotel until 6:00 P.m. I might rethink my plan of parks and try EMH mornings rather than evenings. I'm a morning person anyway. Nevertheless, i know my son will want to do something. We could do MK EMH evening. If we arrive at MK at 7:00 pm, where should we begin? We will want to see the fireworks and maybe the parade. There are evening parades so we could do the busier rides. Here's a list of rides we want to catch:
Jungle Cruise
Pirates of the Carribean
Splash Mountain
Thunder Mountain
Haunted House
Mickey's Philharmonic
Space Mountain
Buzz Lightyear

Also, are these rides running fully with all their lights during EMH evening?
What time does it start getting dark around June 8?

 

[snowy76]

I found this website for another DIS-er the other night: http://www.timeanddate.com/worldclock/astronomy.html?n=867&obj=sun&month=6&year=2005&day=1 It can tell you sunrise and sunset times for Orlando or anywhere else. Around June 8th sunset is between 8:20 and 8:30 pm. It'll start getting darker a bit earlier I think.

I would do morning EMH. That being said... here is what I would do if they dragged me out to evening EMH...

I would head to Adventureland and Frontierland first. You proabably have time to do PoC and Jungle Cruise. If you time it right you may be in Frontierland when Spectro comes through on its first run. With so many people going to see Spectro, see if you can do Splash and/or BTMRR during the parade.

Hit the hub for Wishes after that, then I would hit Phil and Haunted Mansion.
Since there are two Spectros on the 8th, you can head back toward Main Street for the parade. The second parade should be less crowded. Then off to Tomorrowland for Space and Buzz.

 

[GeorgiaTiggerGirl]

I was Epcot last week for the extra evening hours, and plan to stick with the early morning hours. We walked right on Mission Space at 8:55, but everything was kinda downhill from there. Test Track was 30-40, not too bad, I suppose. However, Soarin was a 90 minute wait. I, too, miss the Eride night....those were worth every penny!